And Collie.
The next morning was interesting. Each domicile had electronic screens built into the walls, to replicate windows. At seven o’clock, Gus woke up to the sight of a sun rising in the distance, over a wooded hill. Soft piano music, of all things, drifted in from unseen speakers. Pleasant morning music that Gus initially considered turning off… but didn’t. Instead, he stayed on the couch, and stared at that feed of a breaking dawn. He didn’t know if it was live or not, but he appreciated the moment for what it was.
It seemed the entire section of Whitecap was no longer in screensaver mode.
The group later gathered in a cafeteria, around one of the larger tables. All the ceiling lights and screens were on, displaying an autumn outdoors and trees rustling in a breeze. Collie entered the cafeteria without her battle helmet on. She did wear a new pair of sunglasses, which took up a good portion of her face. When she noticed his stare, she smiled.
Collie later directed Bruno and Rich Trinidad to the kitchen, where she accessed an impressive pantry full of preserved food. They ate frozen omelets, waffles, bacon, hash browns, and even had, of all things, ketchup—although the ketchup tasted a little vinegary to Gus. Canned fruit was even on the table—peaches and pears.
Collie did not partake, excusing herself to check on the food stores as well as the contents of the freezers. When Bruno and Cory finished cooking, she took a plate of food back to Carson.
After breakfast, however, she returned to the cafeteria and stopped at their tables.
“How’s everyone doing?” she asked, standing behind Monica who’d finished off a bowl of dried cereal and powdered milk.
They answered they were doing just fine, but the faces had questions. Gus had his own.
“You’re probably wondering what the situation is?” Collie asked.
“Yeah, we are,” Sarah Burton piped up.
“Well, as you know, with the help of the resident custodian, Mr. Rogan, we’ve determined that the individuals assaulting Whitecap are no more. In short, we got them all.”
A moment of silence then, which became a series of satisfied nods.
“So….” Sarah began. “What happens now?”
“Well, Whitecap is essentially secured. I’m going to make a few more passes to ease my own mind. There’s still some cleaning to do. Removal of bodies and so forth. But I’ve been assured by Mr. Rogan that there’s no biohazard risk to us. Or whoever volunteers to help clean up the mess. After all that, you have a choice. Along with the other residents of Tancook. There’s a pretty sophisticated bunker up here. Air filtration systems, water purification systems. Compost, farming.”
“Farming?” Bruno asked.
“Indoor farming. There’s a seed vault containing most everything you’d want to grow. The thing was designed to be a second vault like the one up in Spitsbergen. The Doomsday Vault.”
That widened some eyes.
Collie continued. “Fish tanks, which are at full capacity, so I understand. Living quarters, which you all had a taste of last night. Gyms. Firing ranges. Storefronts. Libraries containing pretty much every book, film, and song ever made. Top off all that with practically unlimited power.”
“Holy shit,” someone muttered, and Gus realized it was his own mouth.
“So, yeah,” Collie summed up. “Everything you need right here. The armories are off limits for now, but they’ll be made accessible in time. Think of this place as an underground five-star hotel. All paid for by your tax dollars.”
That left them speechless.
“We’ll need to go through it all,” Collie went on. “Make sure all the dead are cleared. But after that. It’s here. Under a mountain, given, but… it’s here. Ready and waiting. We’ll need to send someone back to our folks at Tancook. Let them know what’s going on. I’ll be selecting a couple of volunteers, but I don’t think that’ll be a problem. Not when you know how you’ll be getting there.”
“How?” Rich Trinidad asked.
Collie smiled. “You’ll see. I’m keeping that a surprise.”
“You’ve been saying that ever since we left home,” Cory said. “After all this? Let it out.”
“All right. I haven’t checked to see if they’ll start, but the PM had three limos. I spotted a couple in the main garage. Those things are armored, top-of-the-line monsters. Able to run on solar, as well as energy derived from tire friction, brake application, and other sources I either forgot or don’t know about. Anyway, they don’t need any gas is what I’m saying.”
That was met with quizzical stares.
“Top speed I think is only fifty or sixty klicks an hour, but, hey, I don’t think anyone here will mind. Not when you see the interior.”
Gus squirmed. He didn’t care about the transportation. He was hoping to hear about something else.
Thankfully, however, Sarah Burton, God love her, got to the point.
“What about you?” she asked pointedly. “You don’t look so good.”
Collie flashed a crooked smile. She adjusted her sunglasses, and there was something offsetting about it. “Don’t you worry about me. I’m fine. I do have a few things to do, but none of that concerns you. We’ll talk again later. Maybe meet here around lunchtime. ‘Til then…”
She looked for Gus and beckoned him with a finger.
They stepped away from the group. “Come with me. We need to see someone.”
He nodded, fidgeting, close to bursting. Collie gathered up a metal serving tray of food and then headed for the main walkway. As soon as they were out of hearing range of the group, he asked, “All right what’s going on with you?”
Collie faced him.
“Out with it. Come on.”
She checked on the others. “Yeah, sorry. Let’s walk. Not far, because I need to feed Milo, but I’ll tell you everything you want to know. And some shit you probably won’t want to know.”
They started walking.
“So yeah, turns out… I’m something of a mutation. Just like Wallace. Go figure. You sleep with a guy, share some DNA, and turns out, it’ll change you.”
That robbed Gus of all words.
“Rogan said that it was probably just percentages, but, yeah, whatever was turning Wallace, well, some of that rubbed off on me. Aren’t you glad we didn’t do anything more than just snuggle?”
“Collie,” he said, the misery strong in his voice.
“Sorry, shitty joke. But, again, even Rogan isn’t certain. He said it might have just been coincidence that my TI injection did the same to me. He doesn’t know what the timeline might be for me. Might be the same for Wallace. Might be longer. Or shorter. Right now… I can feel just a twinge in my joints. Just a twinge. Might’ve been when I was shot, though…”
Gus stopped her, his eyes stern.
“All right,” she sighed. “Sorry again. I’m out of practice here, but I never was one to sugar coat things. I don’t… have much time left. And the mission has changed. It’s no longer about finding survivors. Well, it is, but… you’ll see.”
Gus reached out and gripped the woman’s shoulder. He stared at her, holding back the sadness welling up in his throat. His solemn gaze, and the visible attempt at control, and seeing it fail, wilted Collie’s own expression.
They slowly embraced, and held each other for a long time, while nearby screens showed sailboats gliding across rolling waters.
*
They arrived at Milo’s cell about twenty minutes later.
His butt was planted on the bed, amidst a snarl of gray and white blankets and sheets. He was naked from the waist up, baring a lean upper body that might’ve been lashed by whips at one point. He had thin, sandy-blonde hair, but his face was aged, with dull hazel eyes.
“Morning,” he said. “That for me?”
“Yup.” Collie placed the tray of food on the bed. “And we want to talk.”
“Before, after, or during?”
“Up to you.”
Milo studied the breakfast.
“During, then. Haven’t eaten since yesterday, and that wasn’t much.”
“They didn’t feed you in that outfit of yours?” Gus asked, not entirely pleased with the guy. He’d shot Collie, after all. And one of their pickups not so long ago.
Milo considered the question. “They weren’t my outfit. You guys shot up my outfit. Not that I minded. They were assholes. Mostly. These guys here? They were bigger assholes. Much better organized.”
“You called them the Leather?”
Milo sat back. “They called themselves the Leather. For obvious reasons. They still call themselves the Leather.”
Gus exchanged looks with Collie.
“There are more?” she asked.
Milo studied the food on the tray and rubbed his jaw. “You know they stick ball gags in your face. They took mine out after I shot you.”
Gus tensed at that.
And Milo picked up on it. “Sorry about that. I mean, I had to do it, but again. Sorry.” He took a deep breath before continuing. “There’s more of them. Lots more. Though, honestly, you took out a good chunk. I wouldn’t be surprised if you got close to half. Doubtful, but I wouldn’t be surprised.”
“Go on,” Collie said, folding her arms and leaning against the wall.
Milo didn’t meet her eyes. Instead he picked up his breakfast and began picking at it. “We… my outfit… did freelance work for the Leather. They like to stick with their costumes and such. Intimidation, I suppose. But they would hire us to go out and, well, get in among the locals. Infiltrate. Especially the bigger targets. With smaller groups or individuals, it was more like catch, cage, and bring back alive. They were always looking for new people to bring into their gang. They’d supply us. Mostly gas. Food. The usual. Not so much firearms, though. They stuck to the more, ah, medieval shit. Mostly ‘cause they ran out of the modern stuff, I think.”
“You would catch people?” Gus asked in disbelief.
Milo didn’t answer right away. “Yeah. I could say I was getting tired of it all. Especially the crew I was with. Especially with the Leather and what they did to their victims. But, truth of it was, I stuck with it. Because, if I left, the crew I was with? Well, they would’ve killed me outright or turned me over to the Leather. One or the other. And the Leather was worse.”
Milo cocked his head. “I got a dirty past. I know it. Not proud of it. So, whatever you decide. I’m willing to take my punishment. I’m thinking it ain’t going to be anything worse than what you saved me from.”
Gus rubbed the back of his neck, a sudden unease tensing him up. They may have found this nice bunker, but something told him that things were going to get a lot worse.
“So, yeah,” Milo said after a time. “Thanks. I’ll happily stay in here for the rest of my days. I like this better than what I just came from.”
“You say there are more?” Collie asked. “Of the Leather?”
“Yeah.”
“Out west?”
Milo nodded. “Not sure where, exactly, but I know of a couple of Leather towns.”
“Leather towns?” Gus blurted, but Collie held up a hand.
“So why were all these fuckheads out this way?” she asked.
“Conquest,” the soldier said simply. “Can’t get down into the states. The radiation belt will cook you from the inside out. You guys obviously haven’t been out west, so I’ll tell you… it’s empty. Just ghosts and bones, and things on the verge of falling down. It’s ripe for the staking of claims. And the Leather? They’re in a staking kinda mood. All led by a guy called the Dog Tongue.”
Gus took another disbelieving pause before shaking his head. “Christ almighty.”
“Yeah,” Milo said. “Sorry to be the bearer of bad news and all. I’m not saying you got lucky, but… you did take on pretty much the biggest clan west of the Rockies. And won. That counts for something.”
Collie straightened. “How long before they notice they’ve gone missing?”
“No idea. I don’t know how they did their communications.”
“Dog Tongue,” Gus repeated.
“Dog Tongue,” Milo said. “Yeah. These Leather shits? They worship the guy. Yeah. He’s a regular West Coast warlord. All that.”
“Did you know about the mindless?”
Milo’s brow scrunched. “The zombies? Yeah, I did. Didn’t know how many those bastards had of them, though. Yeah, anyone who didn’t… assimilate… got changed over. Least that’s what me and my crew speculated. Really, they’re all over. Some say they’re around because of the radiation belts. One week in and that’s that. You’re deep-fried. Into one of those.”
Collie and Gus traded looks yet again.
“Look,” Milo said. “You got a good thing going here. Chances are the Dog Tongue won’t find you. Won’t find this place. Besides, you have the guns to defend it if he ever did. It’s a big country. Lots of places to hide when you know how.”
“We could do that…” Collie said. “But then, Dog Tongue just continues to do what he’s doing.”
“Yeah,” Milo admitted. “He does.”
“And you already said he’s in a staking mood?”
“Yeah. He’s working his way here. Leather-controlled towns are set up along the way. Heading all the way to the coast.”
That hooked Gus’s attention.
“The coast.”
“Yeah. Why, you guys from back east?”
Gus didn’t answer him, but he motioned for Collie to leave with him.
“Seeya cowboy,” Collie said, following Gus out. “Enjoy the eats.”
“Thanks. And… hey.”
They paused in the doorway.
Milo took a moment, chewing over the words. “Again. I’m sorry. Really.”
Collie closed the door and locked it. She placed her back against it and regarded Gus.
“You heard all that?” she asked.
Gus nodded.
“What do you think?”
He couldn’t answer.
“I’ll tell you what I think. We could hide here and let this Dog Tongue go on with his staking. Odds are he won’t find us. But… he will find Tancook. Eventually. Our people are already on the coastline.”
“Yeah,” Gus agreed, very much not liking where the conversation was going.
“My mission, originally, was to find survivors and bring them back. Not to leave them to some fucked up gluebag who’s watched too many Mad Max movies.”
“Yeah.”
“I can’t let that happen, Gus,” Collie said. She pushed up her sunglasses, revealing her eyes. Once blue, but now cracked with startling streaks of gray. “And, while I’m around… I won’t.”
“Collie…”
She held up a hand, and that familiar smile returned. “I’m on my way out. I’m done. I’m finished. But I like Ollie’s thinking. Go out doing something, rather than sitting down and waiting for it to happen. That’s how I’m going to go out. Doing something.”
Gus looked her in the eyes, and his faltering voice betrayed his unease. “What are you gonna do?”
Collie didn’t hesitate. “I’m gonna find this Dog Tongue,” she said, her voice as hard as iron. “And kill the miserable blue-balled sonnavabitch.”
To Be Continued…
Afterthoughts.
As always, if you see any mistakes in the story, it’s all on me. I try to catch them all, but some inevitably slip through. To the folks who wrote me and offered advice on handling weapons—thank you very much, and I apologize if, again, I’ve screwed up any details.
I’m working on the second part of this Mountain Man story as you read this. I’m hoping to have it done sooner rather than later, but it’s coming. Fellow writer and friend, Brian J. Jarrett (writer of “Into the Badlands,” the “Tom Miller” novellas, and my favourite, “The Desolate”) once said to me after reading “Mountain Man: Prequel,” and I quote…“Stop saying this is the last Mountain Man book you’re gonna write. We both know there’s more story there. You’ve reti
red from that series as many times as Ozzy Osbourne has ‘retired’.”
So I will stop saying that.
Brian once sang in a heavy metal band, too. It’s not exactly heavy metal, but more, ah… He’ll tell you the exact kind of music, if you ask nicely.
Thanks to Peter Gaskin, for his time and patience in editing this book (and the next) and putting up with my refusal to accept proper grammar over dramatic flourishes. If you’re looking for a freelance editor, contact him at www.bookshopeditors.wordpress.com.
And a final thank you to mystery-writer extraordinaire, SJ Parkinson (“The Legionnaire: Mask of the Pharaoh”) for your advice, as well as a few golden one-liners. Check his work out if you like mysteries.
As always, if you enjoyed the book, please consider leaving a review. They’re like gold.
About the Author
Keith lives in Canada, on the island of Newfoundland.
Try these other titles by Keith C. Blackmore:
Horror
Mountain Man: Prequel (Mountain Man Book 0)
The Hospital (*Free* Mountain Man short story)
Mountain Man
Safari (Mountain Man Book 2)
Hellifax (Mountain Man Book 3)
Well Fed (Mountain Man Book 4)
Make Me King (Mountain Man Book 5)
The Missing Boatman
Breeds
Breeds 2
Breeds 3
Cauldron Gristle (novella—contains Mountain Man short story “The Hospital”)
Private Property (novella)
Isosceles Moon (novella)
Isosceles Moon 2 (novella)
Heroic Fantasy
The Troll Hunter
White Sands, Red Steel
131 Days (Book 1)
131 Days: House of Pain (Book 2)
Mountain Man (Book 5): Make Me King Page 34
